Cpl Anne-Marie Ellement, 30, was found hanged at her barracks in Bulford, Wiltshire - her mother said she was overworked and that the girlfriend of one of her alleged rapists had been posted to Bulford, too

The mother of a woman soldier found hanged at her barracks told a coroner today that her daughter had become depressed after the Army decided not to charge two servicemen she said had raped her.

Corporal Anne-Marie Ellement, of Bournemouth, Dorset - who had complained to her mother that she was overworked - died just three days after her 30th birthday on October 9, 2011.

The Royal Military Policewoman had become depressed after senior commanders decided not to pursue her claim that she had been raped by two soldiers while stationed in Germany in 2009, a second inquest into her death was told.

Alexandra Barritt told a coroner investigating her daughter's death that she was upset when the girlfriend of one of the soldiers she claimed had raped her was posted to her barracks in Bulford, Wiltshire, in 2010.

She said: 'She was worried it would get out and word would get around about what had happened in Germany.'

Mrs Barritt said her daughter became 'distressed' in the summer of 2011.

She said: 'It was about the allegation she made of rape. She said there were going to be no charges and these two individuals were threatening her and saying they were going to sue her and she was very distressed about this.'

Mrs Barritt said her daughter didn’t feel 'at all supported' by the Army after she made the rape allegations in Germany, and was bullied afterwards. 'She said she had been left alone to deal with it,' Mrs Barritt recalled.

'She said people she had been friends with turned against her, and she couldn’t come out of her room because the girls outside of the room were calling her names. She was too scared to leave her room.'

Cpl Ellement, who served with 158 Provost Company of the Royal Military Police and had been in the Army since 2006, was moved to Bulford Barracks in January 2010.

She was found hanged on a fire escape at Bulford, and had scrawled 'I’m sorry' in lipstick on her mirror.

Cpl Ellement was being bullied and was 'scared to leave her room', her mother, Alexandra Barritt, right, said

The inquest heard Cpl Ellement's Army friends 'turned on her' after she made the rape claims.

She had confided in her eldest sister, Sharon Hardy, that she had been raped and was being bullied when she returned to the UK on compassionate leave in December 2009.

Mrs Hardy, a mother of four from Christchurch, Dorset, told the inquest: 'She was devastated. She looked worn out. She had lost weight; she just looked awful.'

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Mrs Hardy said her sister was bullied by the women she lived with in the barracks in Germany when she returned. One of the women was the girlfriend of one of the soldiers she had accused of rape.

Mrs Hardy said: 'The girls turned on her. She had lost her support network. She said to me her friends had turned on her.

'She told me the girls were running up and down the block screaming: "There is the girl who cried rape." They were shouting abuse and banging on the door.'

Mrs Hardy said her sister was 'devastated' when the Army dropped her rape complaint without bringing charges against the men.

She
said: 'Anne-Marie was 110 per cent sure of what had happened to her.
She couldn't believe it, that with her being in the police force they
were not going to deal with it.'

'She
said she couldn't believe people like that could get away with it. They
were supposed to uphold the law. What they had done is wrong and she
was not happy - she wanted justice.'

Cpl Ellement told her sister that she was bullied by the women in her barracks, who called her 'the girl who cried rape'

Mrs Hardy said problems stemming from the rape claim followed her sister after she was posted to Bulford Barracks.

One woman, who had lived with her in Germany, also came to Bulford and 'was going round saying to people "There's the girl who cried rape",' Mrs Hardy said.

She said the bullying behaviour continued when her sister attended an Army v Navy rugby match at Twickenham stadium in April 2011.

'Another soldier she recognised from another unit shouted out across all those hundreds of people: "There's the girl who cried rape",' Mrs Hardy said.

'Anne-Marie was absolutely mortified by this because she said "Now all the soldiers in my unit know about this".'

Mrs Hardy said this coincided with her sister working 80 to 90 hours a week in an acting sergeant role at Bulford.

She added: 'She said she was being called in to work on her days off sick, and her rest days. This was from the spring of 2011 to when she died.

'She said even on her birthday they were banging on her window to get her up. She said she was sick of it; she was tired and she was worn out.'

Mrs Hardy went on: 'The last three months of her life, her work load seemed to increase. I didn't see her as often as I first did. Every time I spoke to her on the phone she seemed tired and worn out.'

The last time Cpl Ellement saw her
family was when she went out for a birthday meal at a Chinese restaurant
in Bournemouth on October 7, 2011 - two days before her death.

Mrs Hardy said: 'When she died my immediate thoughts were the Army - the rape, the bullying, the over-work.'

The soldier's father, Kenneth Ellement, gave a statement to the inquest which was read out in his absence by the coroner.

Mr
Ellement said: 'She did not like Germany and while she was there she
was the victim of a rape which I know caused her an enormous amount of
stress.'

Hopes: Even as a child, Anne-Marie Ellement had dreamt of joining the Army, an ambition she fulfilled in 2006

'I know the girlfriend of someone involved in the incident also came back to Bulford which caused her further stress. She spent two weeks just sitting in her room and would not go out.'

Mr Ellement added: 'She had days off
work with stress in the last month. She didn't seem to be getting any
support from the Army.'

Captain
Shane Doherty, who at the time of Cpl Ellement's death was a company
sergeant major, said on two occasions he saw her tearful and spoke to
her, giving her a ‘pep talk’.

‘Had
I known of the previous history as regards the rape, I may have been
more stringent in pushing welfare services, not to say that they were
not dealing with it,’ Capt Doherty told the court.

He said that he only found out about the rape allegations after her death.

‘I
was quite shocked when I heard. It was shocking. No one said anything
to me that she was being bullied by her chain of command or any of the
NCOs.’

Capt Doherty said that he found it
‘quite staggering’ at hearing in court claims that members of the RMP
were working 80 or 90 hours a week. ‘I find that absolutely staggering
and doubtful,’ he said.

'She spent two weeks just sitting in her room and would not go out'

Cpl Ellement's father, Kenneth Ellement

Also giving evidence at the inquest was Corporal Derek Bennetts. He played in a band with Cpl Ellement, who was a talented singer.

Cpl Bennetts said that Cpl Ellement had complained to him of being ‘picked upon’ by a staff sergeant and also heard ‘derogatory terms’ used to describe her.

‘I heard the staff sergeant cursing out loud “for f***'s sake” to himself about Anne-Marie's work,’ he said.

He said that shortly before Cpl Ellement's death he was concerned that she seemed ‘particularly low’ and was crying, so reported his concerns to a sergeant.

‘I expressed my concerns that I thought she was going to do something, I mean self-harm or worse,’ he said. ‘Because of her persona. She was so down, it was like she was broken.

‘He said he would take it on board and tell the company sergeant major.’

Cpl
Bennetts alleged that two senior NCOs would shout at her. ‘Sometimes it
seemed they got a kick out of it,’ he said. ‘That's the word I would
use - an awful thing to say. They seemed to enjoy b********g her.’

Cpl
Bennetts also said that ‘welfare was not a priority’ for the company.
‘Certainly not at that time. Nothing seemed to happen,’ he said.

He
told the inquest how he believed a break up in a relationship was the
catalyst for her to take her own life. ‘I think that's what tipped her
over the edge,’ he said.

‘In
the suicides I have been involved in as an RMP, which has been three
others, it has always been the breakdown of a relationship.’

The
night before she died, Cpl Ellement went out and got ‘really drunk’
with around a dozen comrades in Salisbury to celebrate her 30th
birthday, the inquest heard.

Corporal Anne-Marie Ellement, 30, originally from Bournemouth in Dorset, who was found hanged at Bulford Barracks after saying she had been raped, with her sisters, Khristina Swain (left) and Sharon Hardy. Ms Hardy said: 'The family are delighted with this verdict we have today'

She was seen looking hungover the following day and sat on the fire escape stairs ‘for most of the day,’ looking upset. Her body was later found hanging.

Friend Lance Corporal Andrew Soos said in a statement: ‘I saw Anne-Marie sat on the fire escape. She looked hungover. She was sat with her head in one hand and mobile telephone in the other with a mug of tea on the step next to her. She looked glum - a typical "can't be bothered hangover".’

L/Cpl Soos said he came past later that day and she was still looking at her phone.

‘I said to her "oi you noisy b****r keeping me up when you got in this morning", he recalled. ‘Anne-Marie looked at me and said “sorry”. She looked upset but not like she was crying.’

In the early evening, she was found hanging by comrades who started resuscitation attempts. An ambulance was called and she was taken to hospital where she was declared dead shortly after her arrival.

The inquest heard Cpl Ellement was struggling with her work and was signed off with stress in September. She also struggled with relationships and was seen as unlucky in love by her friends.

It emerged she had broken up with her latest boyfriend and fellow soldier Robert Neal on the day she died.

'I expressed my concerns that I thought she was going to do something, I mean self-harm or worse. Because of her persona. She was so down, it was like she was broken'

Corporal Derek Bennetts

L/Cpl Soos said: ‘She would meet up with men, but they were not interested in a serious relationship which is what Anne-Marie wanted. Rob finished it, I think this was the day Anne-Marie killed herself.’

Another military policeman, Corporal Paul Butler, told the coroner he grew close to Cpl Ellement in late 2010. The married soldier said: ‘It had the potential to become a relationship but it never did.

‘I said I was attracted to her and that if I left my wife it would be for her.’

However, it never happened and Cpl Butler said Cpl Ellement was ‘very upset’ when he cooled things with her in January 2011.

The pair remained friends, however, and Cpl Butler told how she confided in him about the alleged rape in Germany and her stress with work.

He said: ‘She felt like she was being bullied and that she was getting called in outside of working hours a lot and was working late. I would often see her working late.’

Cpl Butler said it was not uncommon for soldiers working in the short-staffed unit to work 12 to 16 hour days.

He told how Cpl Ellement believed she was being unfairly singled out by her superior, Staff Sergeant Simon Clarke, for extra work and set next-day deadlines she couldn't meet.

Cpl Butler said: ‘She said she felt like she was being picked on and she has so much to do and couldn't get through it all.’

Cpl Butler also said how he thought Cpl Ellement was ‘too nice’ and this would lead to soldiers serving beneath her to undermine her authority.

However, another friend, Lance Corporal Rebecca Joseph, said Cpl Ellement was struggling with her new acting role as a shift commander and she herself admitted to her that she was ‘out of her depth’.

L/Cpl Joseph also said her friend was disorganised and ‘didn't take criticism well’ which would lead to her holding grudges with superiors after they disciplined her.

‘She could make a mountain out of a mole hill,’ L/Cpl Joseph said.

The inquest being held in Salisbury today is a new investigation into Cpl Ellement’s death after her family sought a judicial review for a new hearing.

An earlier inquest, which recorded a verdict of suicide, did not hear any evidence about the rape allegations.

Opening the new three-week inquest this morning, senior coroner Nicholas Rhineburg said: 'We will be dealing with the tragic death of Mrs Ellement on October 9, 2011.

'We will be exploring how she came to die, looking in particular at whether she deliberately took her own life.

'We will also be exploring other issues. We will be looking into the effect on the deceased of a distressing event which occurred when she was posted in Germany in November 2009.

'We will be looking into how effective the welfare and support was given to the deceased. We will be looking into whether the deceased was bullied and the effect on her.

'We also be looking into whether the deceased was overworked, and the effect on her.'

The coroner ordered that the soldiers accused of rape must only be named as Soldier A and Soldier B. The hearing continues.

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